engine room, Jesse opened up all the override panels and forced the switches open, they were already starting to heat up with the entire power supply of the ship coursing through them. Once they had all been opened, Jesse left, and headed towards the brig. The previous crew was in there, thinking they had been abandoned. Jesse opened the doors and told them to head for the escape pods; since he didn’t know where they were located, Jesse just followed along.
With nothing left keeping him onboard the Penelope, he clambered into a pod after a couple of Hermitage personnel and shut the door. After buckling himself into the pod, Jesse hit the launch button, but nothing happened. All power was going into the engines and none to secondary functions such as escape pod launches. Mumbling under his breath, Jesse got out of the harness and pulled the emergency detach handle that was located on the ceiling. It didn’t launch the pod, but his action did unattach it from the firing mechanism and give a little shove. Jesse cranked the handle back and forth, each time getting another small shove into space.
Before his pod made it out from the Penelope, the ship collided with the Renegade. The overload didn’t happen immediately, giving him a little time. Jesse was cranking the handle back and forth as quickly as was humanly possible, he felt like he was picking up a little speed, but the collision with the larger ship threw him to the floor of the pod. Before he could stand back up, the Penelope went into overload. The pod was driven from the belly of the Hermitage ship with such force that Jesse blacked out from the acceleration.
The next thing that Jesse knew, he was being lifted out of the escape pod by Hermitage personnel. The air was hot and dry, the sun bright. He has lying on a board face up and couldn’t move, but he was facing the sky and saw a fireball hanging there.
“You destroyed both of our ships, but you saved us. If we had been locked inside the escape pods when it exploded we would be dead. The detonation shoved the escape pod out of the Penelope and towards Aridia. The pods own systems came online and adjusted the descent and landed us here. It was an extremely rough landing because of the force of the explosion; it took everything that the pod had to slow us down enough. You were bouncing around the whole time, but we couldn’t get out of our harnesses or we would have bounced around too. You have injuries, but I’ve administered a paralytic agent to keep you from moving and possibly injuring yourself further.”
Jesse couldn’t speak, but his eyes relayed what he was feeling.
“We won’t hurt you. I expect your commander will find us any minute. We will surrender. Somehow you have turned a small raid on an outlying world into a disaster. You destroyed two Confederate ships and managed to inform the NOMC of the Hermitage Corporation’s alliance with the Confederacy using nothing but eight ancient fighters, an observatory, and sharp eyes. Well done sir.”
Jesse couldn’t keep his eyes open, the paralytics and sedative were kicking in, but he was relieved to have survived another encounter with the Confederates.
Thank you so much for reading this short story, I really hope that you enjoyed it as much as I did writing it. My plans are to make this the beginning of a series of short stories about Jesse Ownsman and his adventures. I have a Facebook page for all the books and short stories in the Other Worlds universe, so just search for it and “Like” it to keep a tab on my newest stuff.
Thank you,
Ronald Brandenburg
About the Author
Ronald Brandenburg III was born in the United States in Alabama and grew up on the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico. Growing up on a small farm meant having few neighbors and thus delved into the worlds of fantasy and science fiction. Major influences include Harold Coyle, J. R. R. Tolkien, Edgar Rice Burroughs, J. K. Rowling and many others.
Ronald studied mechanical engineering at the University of Alabama in Huntsville where he graduated with honors. Since finishing school, he is a Systems Engineer for a Fortune 500 company. Alongside table top strategy games and computer games, writing is a favorite hobby.
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